Competency at issue for Waynesfield man charged with attempted murder

Charged with attempted murder

By J Swygart - jswygart@limanews.com

Agnew

LIMA — The jailhouse behavior of a rural Waynesfield man incarcerated on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping led to an order by an Allen County judge in September to have the inmate undergo a psychological examination to determine his fitness to stand trial.

Now additional information has come to light in the case of Dale Agnew, who allegedly attempted to cause harm to his ex-wife earlier this year.

According to a document filed with the court on Monday, the psychiatric examination ordered by Judge David Cheney was postponed due to “various medical reason of the defendant” until Nov. 30.

Agnew was evaluated at the Forensic Psychiatry Center for Western Ohio and a report of that examination was provided to the state and to defense counsel.

A competency hearing was scheduled for Monday, but in the court document filed that day it is noted that the state has been “provided with information that counsel for both the state and defense believe may be of importance to the FPC evaluator regarding the defendant’s competency to stand trial but was previously unknown to the evaluator.”

The court document notes that the information is in the form of telephone calls made to or from Agnew while he has been incarcerated in the Allen County jail.

Recordings of the calls will be forwarded to the psychiatric evaluator for consideration as to Agnew’s competency. A hearing on the matter will be re-scheduled for a future date.

Agnew, 46, was indicted Sept. 13 by an Allen County grand jury on the attempted burglary, kidnapping and aggravated burglary counts in addition to a fifth-degree felony charge of possession of criminal tools. He was initially present in Lima Municipal Court on Aug. 22 to answer to a charge of kidnapping, which alleged he did “by force, threat or deception” remove or restrain Lisa Agnew from a location with the intent to “terrorize or to inflict serious physical harm upon the victim …”

During his initial court appearance, Municipal Court Judge David Rodabaugh set Agnew’s bond at $1 million. He remains in custody at the Allen County jail.